READJUSTMENT OF THE MINISTRY.
LORD EuroT's succession to the Earldom of St. Gerrnains will oblige him to vacate the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland, always filled by a Commoner; which must therefore cause some shifting in the Ministry. Mr. Sidney Herbert, the Secretary to the Admiralty, chiefly known for his Liberal leanings, is named for the Irish office ; but what will be done with Lord Eliot himself'? His being a Peer does not exclude him from all places in the Government; and he is much too creditable a person to be spared with advantage. Why not take the opportunity to make some more general move ? Any would be beneficial that transferred Baron Stanley from the Colonial Office ; though it might indeed be diffi- cult to know what to do with him. However, he answers so ill as " agent in Parliament for the Colonial Office and Exeter Hall," that it might almost be predicated of him that he must do better in any other department—as Trade, Exchequer, Woolsack, Foreign Office, or even the Home Office ; only that, now he is so well known, his intrusion in any other sphere would raise an up- roar : in the Foreign Office, throughout Europe—what wars! in the Home Office, throughout the United Kingdom—what revo- lutions ! The Colonies are not only used to it, but they are prover- bially powerless, and must put up even with a Stanley. What then could be done with him? The question, we admit, is a poser. But perhaps, as men sometimes unexpectedly excel in posts for which they seem peculiarly the least suited, it might be a safe experiment to send Lord Stanley where it would seem most dangerous for him to be. He might be made, for example, Governor-General of Canada. The very words, indeed, sound like rebellion, independence, separation, annexation, and Heaven knows what. But as a desperate measure it might answer. Or, to rush to a greater extreme, send him out as Governor of New Zealand : tet the man who of all others has done most harm to New Zealand expiate his sins by setting that disjointed world to rights ; let him who caused the disease be the cure, as you give to the viper-bittenviper-broth.
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